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British and Irish Lions managing director Ben Calveley has stated that their touring party has the right to not be vaccinated if they decide against it, after revealing not everyone in their party had been double-jabbed.

Calveley made the revelation ahead of Wednesday night’s game with the Sharks after it was confirmed a member of staff had contracted the virus, resulting in 12 people being forced to isolate, with eight of them part of the playing squad.

An unnamed player also returned a positive Test on Wednesday and must return a negative PCR test today in order for those players to be released, as the Lions prepare to name a team later this afternoon for Saturday’s return fixture with the Sharks.

If he does not return a negative result then the Lions may not be able to field a team on Saturday due to the large number of close contacts currently being forced to isolate, throwing the tour into further chaos.

“Well, I think everyone has a right to make their own decision on whether or not they want to be vaccinated,” Calveley told us.

“We have a number of strategies in place to mitigate the risk in any environment.

“I think it’s wrong for anyone to think that vaccination is some sort of universal panacea. I’m afraid it’s not. So we have an approach which is multi-layered where, as well as having a majority of the party being vaccinated, we are also exhibiting all of the right behaviours that I’ve spoken about before.

“We’re getting tested three times a week, if not more, we’re socially distancing, we’re well ventilated, we’re observing hand hygiene, we’re wearing masks, we’re not integrating with the public, and we’re travelling very infrequently.”

“The hotel staff don’t go home every evening and re-integrate the next day. They live on-site here as well and actually there are very few hotel staff. So actually our bubble is about as secure as it can be.

“We think we’ve got a very, very robust set of protocols in place that will keep us as safe as they possibly can.”

As soon as we have details on today’s PCR tests, we’ll be sure to update you.